Northbound Naito Traffic Adjustment

Portland, Ore. (June 24, 2016) -- The Waterfront Blues Festival is expected to draw 100,000 people between July 1 and 4; roughly 25,000 people per day. As part of this festival benefiting Oregon Food Bank, there will be some lane configurations intended to keep visitors and travelers safe. There will be two phases of closures.

Loading phase: June 26-30
Beginning Sunday, organizers will utilize the easternmost northbound lane of Naito Parkway starting at SW Clay for loading activities related to the festival. This lane configuration will exist 24 hours a day starting the morning of June 26th.

Pedestrian safety & access phase: July 1-4
On Friday morning, July 1st, the lane conversion of the northbound lane of SW Naito Parkway will begin a SW Clay Street and extend to NW Davis Street to accommodate people traveling to or around the Waterfront Blues Festival at the southern end of Waterfront Park. The conversion is intended to create a safe way for people to get to and around Waterfront Park and will link up with the existing Better Naito configuration that people have become accustomed to.

As part of creating safe access for people to travel to and around the Oregon Blues Festival, motor vehicle traffic heading to the Hawthorne Bridge will be detoured to the Hawthorne Bridge onramp on SW Main Street. The Hawthorne Bridge ramp from Naito will be closed to motor vehicle traffic July 1-4.

In 2015 Better Naito, a partnership between Portland Bureau of Transportation and Better Block PDX, began efforts to create a safe way for people to travel during Portland's peak festival season. Prior to Better Naito, people were often forced to squeeze into narrow dirt paths, walk in a bike lane, or bike in a travel lane with high-speed traffic. As a result of the program's success in 2015, an extended pilot was planned for the 2016 summer season.

The 29th annual Safeway Waterfront Blues Festival is presented by First Tech Federal Credit Union. Ticket and artist information for the festival can be found at www.waterfrontbluesfest.com. A limited number of passes for Oregon Trail Card holders will be available each day at the Hawthorne Gate.

For additional information about Better Naito, please visit the project website at www.portlandoregon.gov/transportation/NaitoParkway.